MSU School of Art Exhibition Reception for Martin Tagseth

The School of Art at Montana State University invites the public to a closing reception of an exhibition of work by ceramic artist Martin Tagseth on Thursday, November 14th from 6:30-8:30 pm. The School of Art's international artist in residence, Tagseth has been teaching and making new work on campus for the past five weeks. His work is on display in the Helen E. Copeland Gallery.

Tagseth's pottery is influcenced by his western Canadian agrarian upbringing and the ceramic traditions of 17th centery Korea and China. Making use of wood-firing, salt-firing, and applied glaze chemistry, Tagseth's works are conceptual, through they involove tradition vessel forms. Tagseth writes: "It is not my intent to consciously direct the viewer toward a specific aesthetic, but to simply present them with what I consider to be poetic objects that may alter the way in which they view ceramics as a whole...The forms used throughout are both historically and culturally significant, and are intended to be recognizable as such. By altering the scale, proportion, surface considerations and the spaces the works inhabit, the resulting ceramic pieces are seen in consturcted or fabricated context, and provide the viewer with a new reading on the objects's tradition."

The Helen E. Copeland Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9am-5pm (closed on weekends and holidays.) The gallery is located on the second floor of Haynes Hall on the MSU campus. For more information, please call 994-4501